Johnson County, Missouri - Chapter 6: - Railroads, 1918

RELATION OF RAILROADS TO DEVELOPMENT OF WEST - CONSERVATISM OF A CENTURY AGO - RAILROAD CONVENTION AT ST. LOUIS IN 1836 - ADOPTION OF RESOLUTIONS AFFECTING JOHNSON COUNTY - FIRST LOCOMOTIVE ON PACIFIC RAILROAD - FIRST RAILROADS IN MISSOURI - LEGISLATION AFFECTING JOHNSON COUNTY IN 1SS2 - EXTENSION OF PACIFIC RAILROAD IN 1S65 - OPPOSITION - INFLUENCE OF COLONEL B. W. GROVER. MAJOR N. B. HOLDEN. AND W. H. ANDERSON - BONDS - "THE QUARRY' SWITCH" - ST. LOUIS & SANTA FE - ST. LOUIS & SAN FRANCISCO - MISSOURI, KANSAS & TEXAS - CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC - "WILD-CATTING" - PROPOSED ROAD FROM WARRENSBURG TO MARSHALL.

No single agent of modern ci\-iliation has had more to do witli the development of the west than the building of railroads. The question of transportation has always been an important one and while Missouri was better supplied with great national water ways along her borders and across the state, }'et we find that it was one of the first western states to agitate the question of railroad building.

We, of this age, can hardly conceive of a people being so conservati\e that considerably less than a century ago they regarded railroads as impossible, or at least impracticable. Yet as late as 1828, the school board of Lancaster. Ohio, replied as follows to some young men who asked for the use of the school house in which they desired to debate the railroad problem. ''You are welcome to use the school house to debate all proper questions in, l)Ut such things as railroads and telegraphs are impossibilities and rank infidelit_\". There is nothing in the Word of God about them. If God had designed tliat his intelligent creatures should tra\el at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour, by steam, he would have foretold it through his liol\- prophets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."

As early as 1836 a railroad convention was held at St. Louis. .\ committee consisting of Messrs. Rollins. Bates and (lamble was appointed to negotiate with Congress for grants of land lo aid proposed railroads.

Louis, ill a southwestern direction, to the valley of Bellevue in \\ ashington county to traverse the rich mineral regions there and to extend through Cooper county to a point on the Missouri river in Jackson county. The proposed railroad to h^a^^ette was to cross the Missouri river at the town of St. Charles, and go through or within one mile of Warrenton, Danville. Fulton, and Columbia.

The first locomotive west of the Mississippi river was operated on the Pacific railroad at St. Louis late in 1852. Three years later the Pacific railroad had almost reached Jefterson City. In 1861, when the Civil War broke out, it was built as far west as Sedalia. The first railroad to reach the western boundary of the state was the Hannibal & St. Joseph which was completed to St. Joseph in 1859. However, the Pacific railroad was the first road that was in operation in the state, because as it was built westward from St. Louis it was put in operation as fast as it was completed and the terminal of an actively operated railroad followed the construction gang, as it were, across the state to Kansas City.

The state Legislature located the Pacific railroad through Johnson county in 1852, and shortly afterward the construction of this line was started westward from St. Louis. It was built as far west as Warrensburg in 1864. For about one year Warrensburg was the end of the division and also the terminus for about a year. This being the nearest railroad connection it was the shipping point over a wide scope of country during that time. Six or eight cars of merchandise per day were received here and twenty or more freight teams could frequently be seen hauling freight from the Warrensburg station to trading points farther west and south, including Clinton, Butler, Harrisonville, Nevada, Fort Scott, and other points.

In 1865 the railroad was extended on west through Centerview, Holden and Kingsville and was completed to Kansas City, Missouri, in the fall of that year.

Thus the Pacific railroad was the first railroad to be completed in Johnson county. Like all other railroad projects in the early days in the West, the question as to the location of this road aroused fierce opposition between the towns along different proposed routes. The question of the location of this road began to agitate the people as early as 1850. There was a fierce struggle which developed much animosity and bitterness. The fight was carried to the state Legislature to decide wliether the road should be located where it now is, which was called the inland route or through the river counties north of the present route, which was called the river route.

Col. B. W. Grover, of Warrensburg, who at the time was a member of the state senate, is perhaps entitled to more credit than any other man for giving Johnson county the Pacific railroad. Among others, the work of Major N. B. Holden, a member of the lower house, and W. H. Anderson was vigorous and effective. Mr. Anderson was the father of Dr. James I. Anderson. He made several trips to St. Louis for the road and helped much to get Col. Grover elected a director of the road. Col. Grover and Major Holden were both victims of the Civil War. Colonel Grover became a Union colonel and was mortally wounded at the battle of Lexington and died at St. Louis, October 30, 186L Major Holden was called from his bed and assassinated at his residence in Warrensburg, September 21, 1862.

Johnson county voted $50,000 bonds to have, the Pacific railroad built through this county but owing to the intensity of the struggle which the river counties made to get the railroad. Johnson county citizens subscribed to $100,000. This was necessary to complete the million dollars required to be subscribed by the counties of the state through which the railroad was to run.

The second railroad to be built in Johnson county was constructed under the name of the St. Louis & Santa Fe railroad. This road runs from Holden southwest through parts of Madison, Kingsville and Rose Hill townships, and through Harrisonville to Paola, Kansas. This road was built in 1870 and for a number of years was operated by the Missouri Pacific and is now a part of the M., K. iS: T.

The next road to pass through Johnson county was the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad. This road passes through the southwestern corner of the county and Rose Hill is the only township which it intersects. It was liuilt in 1886. There are two stations on this line in Johnson county, Latour and Quick City.

& Texas at Bryson in Pettis count_v. This road runs in a southeasterly direction from Holden to Chilhowee and thence east through Leeton into Pettis county. It was built in 1895. It now joins the old St. Louis & Santa Fe railroad at Holden. Thus the Missouri, Kansas & Texas has a line across the county from east to west. Its stations in this county are Holden, Magnolia, Chilhowee, Leeton and Sutherland.

The last railroad to be built in this county was the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific which runs from St. Louis to Kansas City. This road enters the county on the west in the southern part of Kingsville township and runs in an easterh' direction through the townships of Rose Hill, Chilhowee. Post Oak, and Jefferson, leaving the county in the latter township, where it crosses into Henry county at Bowen. It was completed in 1906. Its stations are Medford. Denton, Chilhowee, Leeton and Bowen.

This makes six railroad lines in the county. Of the fifteen townships in the county, ten of them are intersected 1)y one or more railroads and of the other townships not one is more than five miles from a railroad.

Johnson county, like many other sections of the \\'est, had its epidemic of railroad projects. In the days of railroad "wild-catting" there were many railroad rumors and railroad booms that never reached the stage of steel rails and many of them never even got as far as the preliminary survey.

One of these projects seemed a probability. This was a railroad from W'arrensburg to Marshall, in Saline county. In 1870 Johnson county voted $100,000 for the construction of this road. The road was surveyed and graded from ^^'arrensburg northeast, for a distance of thirteen miles. It was then discovered that the balance of the money necessary to complete the construction of the road could not be raised and tlie project had to l)e abandoned. There was also $40,000 raised in the county l)y pri\-ate subscription.

The old grade running down Post Oak creek and thence northeast along the north side of Blackwater bottom still remains and is a well-known landmark in that part of the county. At some places its cuts have been dammed and make fine ponds, and at one place in the bottom the public road runs on one of its fills.